ALBATROSS. 49 



voyagers mention them as greatly exceeding these dimensions: weight 

 from twelve to twenty-eight pounds. Bill dirty yellow; crown of 

 the head pale cinereous brown ; the rest of the body in general white, 

 crossed with blackish lines on the back and wings, and with spots in 

 the same direction towards the rump; greater quills black ; the tail 

 dusky lead-colour, and rounded in shape; legs flesh-colour. The 

 young birds are brown, more or less mixed with white; but do not 

 acquire the complete plumage till mature age. 



These birds are frequent in many parts without the Tropics, both 

 to the north and south ; not being confined to the latter, as has been 

 by some imagined;* indeed they are in great plenty about the Cape 

 of Good Hope ; and not only these, but other sorts also, as well as 

 in every temperate southern latitudef as far towards the Pole as has 

 been hitherto explored. Are seen in vast flocks in Kamtschatka, and 

 adjacent Islands, about the end of June, and there called Great 

 Gulls, but chiefly in the Bay of Penschinensi, the whole inner Sea 

 of Kamtschatka, the Kurile Isles, and that of Bering; for on the 

 east coasts of the first they are scarce, a single straggler only ap- 

 pearing now and then. Their chief motive for frequenting these 

 places seems to be the plenty of food ; and their arrival a sure presage 

 of shoals of fish following. At their first coming they are very lean, 

 but soon grow immensely fat, for they are very voracious birds, and 

 will often swallow a salmon, of four or five pounds weight; but as 

 they cannot take the whole of it into their stomach at once, part of 

 the tail will often remain out of the mouth ; and the natives, finding 

 the bird in this situation, knock it down without difficulty. Before 

 the middle of August they migrate elsewhere. They are also taken 

 by means of a hook, baited with a fish,$ though it is not for their 



* Buf. ix. 339. f Seldom below 30 degrees ; never in the Torrid Zone. — 



Forst. Voy. i. 482. 



% Forster mentions their being caught with aline and hook, baited with a bit of sheep's 

 skin. — Voy. i. 87. Cook's Voy. i. 84. 



VOL. X. H 



